Home remedies · Colds, nose & fever
No home remedy here replaces treatment, and none is talked down. What has done good for generations does good — even if no one ever measured it. Where something is well studied, it says so. Where it is only experience, it says that too.
Swallow, yawn or chew — every few seconds during descent. If that is not enough: pinch the nose, close the mouth and blow very gently against it. Never forcefully.
The Eustachian tube links middle ear and throat and opens when you swallow. On descent the outside pressure rises faster than it can follow.
With a blocked nose it often fails — the pressure can then persist for hours after landing.
Do not press hard: it can damage the eardrum. With severe ear pain, blood from the ear or sudden hearing loss, get it assessed.
Have it assessed: fever beyond three days without improvement or rising again, breathlessness, pain on breathing, confusion. In infants under three months any fever is a reason. Also a nosebleed that has not stopped after twenty minutes of correct pressure.